Five years ago I went through the agony of a kidney stone and its subsequent surgical removal and since that period - and the six or eight week build-up to it - I have been well aware of the symptoms.

For the past six or eight months I have felt like another kidney stone episode was looming. Lots of discomfort in the side, back and lower abdomen for moderate periods of time and then back to normal but with the periods of intensity slowly increasing.

This morning I went to see my doc about it. I explained it all, peed in a bottle so he could stick a litmus strip in it, answered all his questions then had a solid physical examination which involved him prodding, poking, pushing, pulling, bending, wobbling and twisting various bits of my body, mostly my legs, back and stomach.

The wash-up? I have damaged a big muscle group in my back and up one side of my body. In fact he was more interested in a sore hip which he thinks might be arthritic and wants to examine further after seeing x-rays.

This episode demonstrates for me (again) what an old Chinese doctor once told me about pain not always being what we think it is and not always caused by what we think might be the cause.

And now, more than ever, I think I will give up completely on self-diagnosis. After all, doctors train for years to learn this stuff I only think I might know about.

Unless you have metal in you somewhere that precludes it, it might be an idea to have a friendly chat with your GP about having regular MRI scans rather than yearly CTs to monitor recurrence of your cyst. Though if your aim _is_ to glow in the dark... keep up the CTs...

Oxford wrote:GM, I know what you are going through. About 4 years ago I had a lot of pain in my jaw and constant headaches. Having had a TMJ problem and at the time doing a lot of cycling put it down to the TMJ and fatigue/dehydration. Didn't worry about it too much. Then I had a CT scan in preparation for elective surgery (rhinoplasty to fix an ongoing sinus problem). Turned out I had a benign cyst (we know that now, didn't know that at the time of diagnosis) in my sinus cavity and upper maxillary area, the size of a golf ball. It had actually pulled my wisdom tooth out of the jaw and was pushing it into my eye cavity, also killed off all the teeth in the back of my jaw. Needless to say the rhinoplasty was put off for surgery to remove the cyst and wisdom teeth. I now have to have a CT scan every year to ensure no return of the cyst. And now get very particular about any sort of pain in the area and never second guess it anymore.

I've had the total opposite problem with self-diagnosis. I've always had pain in my quads in the area above my knee when riding. I thought it was just that I was new to riding and it would take time for my body to adjust. After a while I got annoyed about the pain so I sat down a figured out that the problem was weak Glutes. So I went to the Physio And said I have sore knees, I think its my Glutes" (well, that's the abbreviated version). Two trips to the physio later he said I have weak Glutes. So he gave me some exercises to do to strengthen them. Then a few weeks later I heard about tilted hips and on a trip to the physio I mentioned that I thought the weak Glutes where being caused by tilted hips and I was right. Me 2 physio 0.

Two years ago (ish) I went thru a sudden and unexplained bout of jaundice. Just went bright yellow and was very down on energy and general strength.

During the first few days, after doctor visit, I thought it would be a good idea to google "jaundice in adults". WRONG! BAD! BIG, BIG MISTAKE!! I spent the next week or two convinced I was not long for this earth and taking varied and in some cases extreme measures to prepare for my passing.

I'm still here. And not yellow.

To finish the tale, that first bout (I had two), lasted about three weeks, during which time I had numerous blood tests, hospital visits and examinations. No indication of any blood disorder, disease, gall bladder issues, or anything. Just one day woke up right as rain. A few months later, around Christmas, it happened again, this time for six or seven weeks. Luckily I had a bank of sick leave owing. Daily visits to hospital, blood tests, liver biopsy (that was some serious pain right there!) etc etc etc... Doctors had no idea what went wrong. I am reasonably fit, sporty, in no way overweight, don't drink a whole lot...the only suggestion was that for some reason my liver had become aggrevated and begun producing a crap load of bilirubin (bile), thus turning me yellow. To this day, I still don't know what happened, but as far as self diagnosis goes...I guess in some cases it can be benficial, but it can also be very scary and often misleading. Proceed with caution.

gorilla monsoon wrote:Five years ago I went through the agony of a kidney stone and its subsequent surgical removal and since that period - and the six or eight week build-up to it - I have been well aware of the symptoms.

For the past six or eight months I have felt like another kidney stone episode was looming. Lots of discomfort in the side, back and lower abdomen for moderate periods of time and then back to normal but with the periods of intensity slowly increasing.

This morning I went to see my doc about it. I explained it all, peed in a bottle so he could stick a litmus strip in it, answered all his questions then had a solid physical examination which involved him prodding, poking, pushing, pulling, bending, wobbling and twisting various bits of my body, mostly my legs, back and stomach.

The wash-up? I have damaged a big muscle group in my back and up one side of my body. In fact he was more interested in a sore hip which he thinks might be arthritic and wants to examine further after seeing x-rays.

This episode demonstrates for me (again) what an old Chinese doctor once told me about pain not always being what we think it is and not always caused by what we think might be the cause.

And now, more than ever, I think I will give up completely on self-diagnosis. After all, doctors train for years to learn this stuff I only think I might know about.

As a postscript to this, I went to see the physio last night, a young guy who rides and does tri events. He got stuck into me (I think he pushed his thumb far enough into the front muscle group to touch the matress I was on), hurt me like buggery and when it was finished I felt the best I have done in months. I now have exercises to do and will go visit again next week.

Funny thing: the doctor was interested in the arthritis, not the muscle pain. The physio was interested in the muscle pain, not the arthritis. Doc says the arthritis will cause the most problems long term. Physio says all people "my age" have arthritis if they were active in childhood and youth and fixing the muscles will help ease the arthritic condition.

Whichever way it cuts I'm feeling better, do not have the problem I initially thought I had and from here on in will leave the diagnoses to the medical professionals. That is, after all, why we pay them the big bucks.

Unless you have metal in you somewhere that precludes it, it might be an idea to have a friendly chat with your GP about having regular MRI scans rather than yearly CTs to monitor recurrence of your cyst. Though if your aim _is_ to glow in the dark... keep up the CTs...

that gets expensive. medicare doesnt like preventive investigations ! spending $1000 to just save $30000. makes no sense at all...